The Heralds
"We saw the Precursors as a trustworthy race. Now they have betrayed that trust, and so the Supremacy Wars begin." -A Unnamed Herald Commander The Heralds (Record Designation, translated into Latin: ''Percunia Dominus, ''or "Money Master") are a race of bipedal humanoid beings who once resided on their homeworld of Zeban, which they shared with the Precursors and Predecessors. Once at a Tier 4 state, they established a alliance with the Precursor and Predecessor races which was established with the "Zeban Treaty." However, the Precursors had started a rapid incline of military power, which the Heralds and Predecessors recognized as a threat and that the Precursors would eventually seek to destroy them. They waged war against the Precursors in the Supremacy Wars, but eventually they were hunted to extinction by the Precursors and ceased to exist at the conclusion of the Supremacy Wars. History The Precursors and Predecessors The Heralds first rose up Trillions of years ago, estimates say 7 Trillion Years ago. They were a humble and logical people and began a decline in technology. At Tier 4 stage, they met the Tier 2 staged Precursors, and then two years later, the Predecessors. They were given access to their technology, which allowed them to evolve to a Tier 2 state. The Heralds became a very political power, but most of all, an expert at the art of Merchant shipping. They logically made deals with their Predecessor and Precursor allies, and also successfully made a superefficient economic system. They soon became the richest of the three races, and the Predecessors suggested the creation of the Zebanian alliance, which was accomplished via the Zeban treaty. In this new alliance, the Heralds were the best profiteers and moneymakers and also had a minor amount of political power, but most of it belonged to the Predecessors. Military Inclination and Major Threat The Heralds enjoyed being on the top of the moneymaking business for millions of years and the Zebanian Alliance was extremely long and profitable. The Heralds colonized all of the southern hemisphere of Zeban and their population outnumbered both the Predecessors and Precursors combined. Although mainly pacifists and pathetic at all types of warfare except cyberwarfare, the Heralds received basic military training from the Predecessors, even though the majority of the alliance's military was Precursor. Eventually, it became evident that the Precursors were getting greedy. The Precursors were slowly expanding their empire into Predecessor territory, and the Heralds realized it was only a matter of time before all-out invasion not only consumed Predecessor territory, but Herald as well. They warned the Predecessor government, but the warning fell on deaf ears. However, the Predecessors finally realized the true threat when the Precursors took over the rest of the military, but by then it was too late. The Precursors were kicked out due to a breach in their agreement, but this mattered nil. The Precursors began to invade the Heralds, seeing them as a way to cripple the alliance: Without the Herald's vast currency system, economy and profiteering skills, the Predecessors would soon lose all economic funding and their military would fall apart, making them extremely vulnerable. The Precursors had only one goal: drive both races into extinction. The Heralds quickly lost territory, but not before receiving emergency training. They managed to hold at the Zebanian Memorial, where the former Zebanian Alliance had been formed. They managed to hold until reinforcements arrived, but by then Precursor reinforcements arrived and drove them back to their own capital. The Heralds knew they couldn't win this fight and eventually began evacuation of their remaining territory. By the time evacuations were complete, three quarters of former Herald territory came under Precursor control. The Heralds Doomed Fate A large gap in the timeline appears here. It can be guessed however that during this period, the Precursors launched repeated invasions of the Predecessor homeland, but all failed. When the gap ends, it depicts the fate of the Heralds. The last of their warriors were decimated by a large-scale Precursor attack that left the Predecessor homeland open for invasion. The Heralds attempted to escape their fate, but were ultimately annilihated. By the end of the Supremacy Wars, only a few Heralds existed, and they went into hiding. However, they were all hunted down by the Precursors and eventually all killed, spelling the end for the Herald species. Only ruins of their once vastly economical civilization left behind by the war give any evidence of their existence, and even then, much is not known about them. Description Anatomy and Physiology Not much is known about what Herald's looked like, but it is said they had a strong resemblance to the Sangheili. They had a split jaws, however only had three mandibles, with a large lower jaw and two other mandibles. They had six black eyes, 3 on each side of their face, and were laterally positioned so they could see ahead of them, to their side and even behind them. They were said to have two toes on two large feet, these toes were said to be talon shaped, giving them a bird-like appearence. Their knees bent backward, but like the Quarians from Mass Effect, and some even wore exosuits, as Heralds had extremely acid chiralty; they cannot stand in the sun without the suit or they "melt." Heralds had a stocky build and weighed more than 6 heavily built men, and weighed the same as a Mgalekgolo. This is strange for a strongly economical race, as they were pacifists. The Heralds also lived up to their name. They essentially acted as the Alliance's "messengers", being able to send advanced warnings of a economical boom, imminent invasion etc. within seconds. The Precursors stated that the Heralds also wore a large purple ring on the back of their suit which served as the Herald's equivalent of a coat of arms. This ring had both the Precursor's and Predecessor's insignias added to it once they joined the Zebanian alliance. Their skin was said to be similiar to a reptilian and could survive tempertures that on human being could. However their bodies were so frail that they could not survive a fall larger than 2 meters. Behaviour When it came to politics and profiteering, the Heralds were extremely arrogant, stubborn but at the sametime serious and very intelligent. They made transactions with other races that allowed them not only to gain the upperhand for that timeframe, but for large periods of time. They always favoured diplomacy over conflict, and even during times of war, they never gave up on diplomacy, even if the other race was bent on the other's destruction. This was shown during the Supremacy Wars when the Heralds attempted to negoitate a truce with the Precursors. Evidently this didn't work and it actually insulted the Precursors, as they thought the Heralds were taunting them. For this the Precursors labelled the Heralds as "gullible cowards whose love for money would be their ultimate downfall." This was obviously the case, because as soon as the Herald's economy fell apart, so did the Heralds. Arrogancy and Stubborness lead to alot of political diaagreement with their two allies, which lead the Precursors to depise the Heralds, they hated politics and in their opinion they wear appeasers. The Heralds were also said to be more cowardly than Unggoy, even bribing another race not to trial/invade or tax them, instead of using martial law to resolve the situation. Culture Info on Herald culture is also vastly unknown. What is understood is that during their ancient era, they worshipped the gods of "Currency, Policy and Order." The God of Currency was apparently the one that rewarded the Herald's with money and an economy. The god of Policy gave the Herald's freedom of speech and saved them from significant vagrancy. The God of Order made the laws that the Herald's would once follow, and allowed them to be "free of occupation." The Heralds were said to make large "Sanctums" to worship these gods, three in each city, each one representing one of the gods. When a child was born, they were told which god they belonged to. Depending on the god you were assigned to you were given "special gifts." If you were owned by Currency, you were destined to become a master of money and become an extremely rich Herald. This one many Herald's favoured. If you belonged to Policy you became a politician and would be destined to lead. Finally, if the god of Order owned you, you were destined to join law enforcment, to enforce the laws in which the "gods" gave them. This religion lasted all the way until their extinction. Naming Only one Herald is known. His name, Makrrraaasss da Filidk, in the best translation possible has a large amount of problems with it. For example, the name is split into three words, the first contains three sections, "Mak" was predicted to be the personal name. "rrraaasss" is an unknown. It is most likely a error in the translation, or untranslatable or even more likely, just a unknown Herald name. "Da" and "Filidk" is the clan name of the subject. "Da" meaning the city in which he was born in and "Filidk" being the Herald name for the god. "Filidk" is the herald translation for policy. Even with the technology provided, it is extremely difficult to decrypt the Herald's language and even harder to truly understand their naming system. What's worse is that Herald Sanctums are now non-existent, all except for the one located in the ruins of Yg city, near the continent of Um on Zeban. Homeworld For more information on Zeban, please click here. Trivia *The Heralds highly resembles the Ferengi from Star Trek. They both are pacifist races, both love money and profiteering and both are willing to sell each other out for the highest bidder. *Herald physiology strongly resemble the Quarians in Mass Effect. Their legs are bent backwards in the exact same shape, they both have two toes and three fingers and both were exosuits (however, the Heralds wear theres for a different reason). *The Heralds resemble three races. Ferengi for profiteering, Quarians for legs, toes, fingers and suits and Sangheili for unusual jaw set. *The Heralds are strong rivals of the Precursors. This strengthens the bond between them and the Sangheili. Both races had rivalries with another race. *Herald ruins were found buried on Earth. How this is possible is unknown, as Herald civilization was destroyed long before the creation of Earth. However, it is possible the Precursor's had taken pieces as "souvenirs" *The Heralds were possibly the most powerful race of the three in the Zebanian alliance, has they held most of the economic power. *The Herald nickname "Precious" is a reference to Gollum from Lord of the Rings and his famous line "My Precious!" This is also a reference to the Herald's love of money. 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